Adopting a dog

Our Reassurance

All our dogs awaiting adoption are fully vaccinated, treated for common parasites, microchipped and neutered. Customers who adopt puppies too young for neutering are supplied with a voucher to enable them to have their pet neutered at a later date at no extra cost. All animals have been checked by our Consultant Vets.

Your Home

• To adopt one of our dogs your home will need to have a secure garden for the dog to have access to, but we will rehome a quiet dog to someone living close to a park or heath and who will agree to walk the dog a number of times during each day.
• We cannot rehome dogs to homes where children are under pre-school age and if there isn't someone at home most of the day.

The Adoption Process

Initial Enquiry

Contact must be made initially with the Paws Centre where we will ask you to fill out an application form to adopt on of our dogs.

From there, we will have an informal chat with you about the type of dog you are looking for and can help you choose the right dog/s for you and explain any special needs they may have. Please note that we can only rehome one dog at a time unless they have come to us as a pair or more. We expect new customers to have owned any existing cat/s or dog/s for 3 months or more before adopting an animal from us.

Once a suitable dog has been chosen by yourselves, we ask you to contact our qualified dog behaviourist at the kennels on a Tuesday for an initial meeting with your chosen dog.

The Kennels

Most of our dogs are boarded at a private kennels. Some dogs, however, live with one of our fosterers if they find living in the kennels too stressful or if they are too young. If the dog you are interested in adopting is living with a fosterer, we will arrange for the dog to be at the kennels for your initial meeting on a Tuesday.

If you already have a dog/s, you will be expected to take it/them with you for the initial meeting with your chosen dog and our dog behaviourist to ensure all involved get along suitably. All members of the family that will be living with the dog (including children) should also attend this meeting.

Once the initial meeting has taken place, you will be expected to meet at least two more times with the dog, this can be on any day which is suitable with yourself and the kennels and must be done strickly by appointment with them. Further meetings do not have to be on a Tuesday or with the whole family.

If the dog you are interested in is living with a fosterer, after the initial meeting on a Tuesday with our dog behaviourist at the kennels, any further meetings with the dog can be done at the fosterers home by agreement only. We will pass your details to the fosterer to contact you so that you can make arrangements between yourselves for convenience on when to visit the dog.

The Home Visit

Home Visits are arranged at a time convenient to the customer, usually within a few days of the animal being put on hold (reserved). Our representative will want to ensure that each member of the family is happy and has thought about the implications of adopting a companion animal. The Home Visit is also an opportunity to ask any questions you might have. If our representative is not able to help, they will ensure that a member of staff from the Paws Centre contacts you.

(Once an animal has been adopted we carry out a post-home visit to ensure that the animal has settled in well and to help with any problems that may have arisen.)

Appointment to collect

Once you have had your Home Visit and have been issued with a pass slip, you should phone the kennels to book an appointment to adopt your dog. (Please allow at least 30 minutes for this). At this stage they will advise you on introducing a new animal to your household; take you through the animal's veterinary history/dietary needs and then ask you to sign a simple legal declaration of adoption. We also provide 4 week's free insurance for our adopted animals in association with Pet Plan, the leading pet insurer.

Adoption Fees

We charge a minimum adoption fee for our animals, payable by cash, cheque or credit/debit card:

Puppies (18 months & under)         £100

Dogs                                                £80

These fees in no way cover the amount it costs the RSPCA to care for all the animals we have at the centre - Please remember we receive no state or government funding, raising our own finances in the area to support the animal welfare work we do.